Star Stealing Prince

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Star Stealing Prince is a freeware fantasy RPG created with RPGMakerVX by Ronove (or known as Black Birds of Rye on the official site). The prince of the title is Snowe, who has inherited the snowy kingdom of Sabine after the deaths of his mysterious parents, King Edgar and Queen Lina.

One night, Snowe has a bizarre dream in which a shadowy demon boasts of its intent to murder Astra, a young woman in a nearby tower. His innocent quest to rescue her sets in motion a series of revelations that will reveal the truth about the powerful, complex magic that sustains his kingdom. However, he won't be alone in his quest for the truth. His allies are Astra, her loyal undead guardian Hiante, her loyal demon Erio, and later, a bitter (though good-natured) sentry named Relenia.

Released in early 2012, Star Stealing Prince earned considerable acclaim from the RPG Maker community for its combination of endearing characters, twisty plot, challenging gameplay and a ton of original artwork. It can be downloaded at the official site.

Tropes used in Star Stealing Prince include:
  • Abusive Parents: Edgar and Lina.
  • Always Check Behind the Chair: Players who are thorough in their exploration will be rewarded many times over.
  • And I Must Scream: Snowe's fate in the Bad Ending. The demon keeps him alive so he has to live with the knowledge of what he's done.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Specifically, the royalty. Lina and Edgar were not nearly as good as Snowe believes. Averted with Snowe himself, however.
    • The Original King is no saint either.
  • Barrier Maiden: Astra, as the "witness" to the spell that sealed the original king's demon inside Snowe. If she dies, he gets released.
  • Big Bad: The original king.
  • Blue Eyes: Discussed. The Astra in Snowe's nightmare has blue eyes, while the real Astra has Purple Eyes. Snowe notes this discrepancy when he rescues her, and she says that she has whatever eye color he imagined her having when he created her -- since she was a blonde, he assumed she had blue eyes as well.
  • Bonus Dungeon: Snowe's nightmare. Completing it is necessary to obtain the good ending.
  • Boss Dissonance: Kirby type, majorly. The bosses are merciless compared to the dungeons that precede them.
    • Averted in the Western Tower, where the regular encounters are about as bad as the boss.
  • Climax Boss: Edgar and Lina.
  • Competitive Balance:
  • Cute Monster Girl: Numismatist may qualify. Being a ghost and all.
    • She gets bonus points for appearing next to Snowe's bed at one point, though it can be Fridge Horror if you remember the conditions for her to manifest.
  • Dem Bones: Hiante is a friendly version. The various other skeletal phantoms you see in the game? Less friendly.
  • Demonic Possession: Snowe is an interesting take on this.
  • Difficulty Spike: The Western Tower is most commonly cited. Even the regular encounters are a definite step up from the previous dungeon, and they can utterly demolish you if you aren't careful.
  • Disc One Final Dungeon: The Sepulcher.
  • Damsel in Distress: Snowe thinks Astra is one of these, but finds out that's not the case at all.
  • Dual Boss: Edgar and Lina.
  • Dual-Wielding: Hiante.
  • Elemental Powers:
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Fire burns earth, earth grounds lightning, lightning shocks water, water douses fire.
  • Eleventh-Hour Superpower: The final skills for each party member, as well as Astra's Infinity+1 Sword. All of them can only be gotten in the very final chapter.
  • Fantastic Angst: Erio becomes very annoyed when anyone prods him about his feelings for Astra, because he thinks that pursuing her would be 'creepy'. When Snowe points out that creepy seems to just be what demons do, Erio responds that it's not the way he wants to be.
  • Five-Man Band
  • Floating Continent: The Sepulcher.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Roughly, Snowe is phlegmatic, Astra is sanguine, Hiante is melancholic, and Relenia is choleric.
  • Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Subverted. Lorel and the Chimera seem like this at first, but they are later revealed to have been purposefully placed there by Edgar and Lina to prevent anyone from accessing the Sepulcher.
  • Guest Star Party Member: Erio. He's never a permanent member of the party (since the default battle system for RPG Maker is limited to four party members), and only joins in a few rare instances.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: The very first boss fight of the game. It becomes a lot less hopeless when Astra weakens it later.
  • Infinity+1 Sword: Maiden's Hope for Snowe, Mistilteinn for Astra, Heroes and Villains for Hiante, Gungnir for Relenia.
    • Infinity+1 Accessory: The Green Ribbon, obtainable in the final chapter. It boosts all stats, grants immunity to virtually every status ailment, and halves MP cost.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Erio.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: Played straight for the most part, but also subverted on occasion, such as when Astra yells at you for trying to rifle through her clothes drawers. Also, when the spell on Sabine is lifted and everyone forgets who Snowe is, trying to just waltz into people's houses or trying to go into the back rooms of shops will more than likely just get you tossed right back out.
  • Limit Break: Sort of. Suffering damage increases a special meter for the characters, and they can execute special attacks (tied to their equipment) in exchange for a certain percentage of the gauge. It's virtually identical to the IP system from the Lufia series.
  • Lost Forever: Everything in the Sepulcher, as it cannot be accessed after chapter 5. Most notably are Astra's ultimate weapon and the red ribbon, a potent accessory. Fortunately, the game is rather forward about this, and the skill books found there can be obtained elsewhere if they're missed.
    • Averted with everything else, however. Even in the final chapter, you can go back and get everyone's ultimate weapons (except Astra's) and memories.
  • Love Triangle: It's heavily implied that Erio has feelings for Astra, and that Snowe is attracted to her as well. However, whether or not Snowe has feelings for her is left up to the player's interpretation.
  • Marathon Boss: The Final Boss has thirty thousand hit points. Fortunately, supporting characters will occasionally heal you from the sidelines.
  • Meaningful Echo: Snowe declares that "I inherited this kindgdom, therefore I inherited everything my parents did!" Towards the end, the Original King justifies his rampage by saying "You all inherited everything that they did! You all allowed them to act and allowed them to steal from me!"
  • Meaningful Name: Snowe, the ruler of a snow-covered kingdom, and Astra, the star princess.
  • The Medic: Snowe, interestingly enough.
  • Missing Mom: Relenia turns out to be one for a little girl in Sabine. It was not her decision.
  • Mood Whiplash: Frequent. The story uses the juxtapose between carefree fantasy and serious drama quite well.
  • Multiple Endings: A "good" and "bad" one. The difference will be very clear.
  • Nice Guy: Snowe.
  • Noble Demon: Erio, who is even implied to be in love with Astra.
  • Our Demons Are Different
  • Overprotective Dad: Richard considers himself a surrogate father for Snowe and acts accordingly.
  • Parental Abandonment: ...and that's not even the worst of what Edgar and Lina are responsible for.
  • Parental Substitute: Richard and Vera for Snowe.
  • Perpetual Frowner: Erio. Except in Astra's memory, which is what makes it a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming for many.
  • Purple Eyes: Astra.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Snowe's eyes turn red when the demon is controlling him. For Bonus Points, they're the opposite of his normal green eyes on the color spectrum.
  • Reduced Mana Cost: The Green Ribbon has this effect.
  • Rescue Romance: Averted. In the Bonus Dungeon, Snowe admits that his affection for Astra is purely platonic.
  • The Reveal: Happens several times, and most of the important cutscenes are conveyed through a series of striking pictures created by Ronove.
  • Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: The demon in Snowe is of the Sealed Evil in a Can variety. In the bad ending it gets unsealed, and in the good one it remains sealed and is now more pissed off than ever.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The Bad Ending, though subverted on one account -- everyone except Snow dies, which just makes it worse.
  • Shout-Out: There are many hidden references to other RPG Maker games. In particular, Ronove has said that the character of Hiante was inspired in part by Stoic from Master of the Wind.
  • Sour Supporter: Erio for most of the game.
  • Sword and Sorcerer: Edgar and Lina, to an extent, though this is also subverted, as both of them have aspects from each archetype.
  • Title Drop: Almost. The titular act is accomplished through the use of a "star stealing scroll".
  • Try Not to Die: Richard, before the final battle.

"Don't you dare die. We've worked too hard for this to all be for nothing."

  • Turns Red: Many bosses. Most notably, Lina and Edgar will start spamming their most powerful spell after the other dies.
  • Useless Useful Spell: Heavily averted. Nothing is immune to status effects, even the Final Boss, and they are often crucial to victory. The Child's Cornet and the Scary Mask (which inflict stat debuffs) are two of the most useful items in the game.
  • Villainous Breakdown: The Dream goes absolutely berserk after Astra figures out how to weaken it, even letting loose a Precision F-Strike.
  • "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Lorel will force players to adapt to the more intricate elements of the battle system or perish...and is a wimp compared to some of the bosses who follow.
  • Weapon of Choice:
  • Wham! Episode: The end of the very first chapter. Snowe is very suddenly brought to the brink of death and just barely manages to survive.
    • Also, the end of the fourth chapter, which reveals that the perfect fairly tale scenario of Snowe's kingdom was a carefully constructed lie.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Snowe, in the beginning. The story beats it out of him pretty quick.
  • The Wise Prince: Snowe falls short of the mark at the beginning due to his Wide-Eyed Idealist tendencies, but is definitely on the path to becoming this by the end.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Relenia, quite literally.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Star_Stealing_Prince?oldid=1776832"